Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of...

Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions Who would have ever thought the way a radioactive particle decays would relate to whether or not we have bad attitudes towards life? Who would have ever suspected that the structure of space-time would be so closely linked to whether or not we would marry rich wives? And who indeed would have ever expected that the properties of light might affect whether or not we go on homicidal rampages? Perhaps Kurt Vonnegut did. Could it be possible that a writer known more for his pictures of assholes than his knowledge of advanced physics actually centered some of the deepest concepts in his works on the philosophical implications of general relativity and quantum mechanics?†¦show more content†¦The logic behind it runs something like this: a person’s personality and immediate environment determine his actions. A combination of his genes and upbringing determine his personality. Thus, a person has no real choice in the way he acts (Rachels 104-6). In fact, his entire lif e – every action he would ever take – was inevitable from the day he was born. His genes are obviously not likely to change, and his upbringing is in the hands of his parents and the community in which he grows. And of course, the way they raise him depends upon their personalities, which depend upon their upbringings, which depend upon their parents’ personalities, which depend upon†¦ Needless to say, one can follow this chain all the way back through human and pre-human history, and the result is a lot more than a headache. Indeed, it is nothing less than a vision of â€Å"the whole universe as one great deterministic system† (Rachels 102). Think of it as the break at the beginning of a pool game – from the moment the pool player’s stick hits the cue ball up to when the balls come to a rest and the second player takes her turn, the fate of those little balls is completely predetermined. Pool players (or good pool players, at any rate) can even predict where those balls will land. Replace the stick hitting the cue ball with the start of the universe and the balls final resting places with theShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Kurt Vonnegut s Slaughterhouse Five 1634 Words   |  7 PagesKurt Vonnegut once said, â€Å"So it goes† to describe the unavoidableness of fate. This aspect of seeing terrible things and being able to continue on would become a main theme in his novels. Vonnegut, as an author, received his essential voice by writing about his own experiences, using what would become his signature pessimistic yet humanist view. Vonnegut is described by Lindsay Clark as, â€Å"Worse than a pessimist†¦ he is an eternal optimist doomed to disappointment† (Clark, â€Å"Viewing Four Vonnegut NovelsRead MoreEssay on Coping Mechanisms in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five1679 Words   |  7 Pages People react differently to tragedies: some mourn, some speak up, and some avoid the sorrow. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut suggests the danger and inhumanity of turning away from the discomfort by introducing Billy Pilgrim as someone who is badly affected by the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, and the Tralfamadorians as the aliens who provide an easy solution to Billy. It is simpler to avoid something as tragic as death, but Vonnegut stresses the importance of confronting it. VonnegutRead MoreKurt Vonneguts Tragic Path to Success1128 Words   |  5 PagesKurt Vonnegut, was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to American-German parents Kurt Vonnegut (Sr.), and Edith Vonnegut. Vonnegut had an older brother, Bernard and an older sister, Alice. Vonnegut graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1940 and went to Cornell University later that fall. Though he majored in chemistry, he was Assistant Managing Editor and Associate Editor of the Cornell newspaper. While at Cornell, Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army. TheRead MoreKurt Vonneguts Opinions Expressed in Player Piano, Cats Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five2290 Words   |  10 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s Opinions Expressed in Player Piano, Cat’s Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five Every so often, a person comes along and encompasses the meaning of a generation. This person will capture everything people want to say, and then word it so well that his or her name becomes legendary. The sixties was an era with many of these people, each with his or her own means of reaching the people. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., armed with a typewriter and a motive, was amongst those that defined theRead More Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Essays3848 Words   |  16 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Great artists have the ability to step back from society and see the absurd circus that their world has become. Such satirists use their creative work to reveal the comic elements of an absurd world and incite a change in society; examples include Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove, and Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22. Both works rose above their more serious counterparts to capture the critical voice of a generation dissatisfied with a nation ofRead MoreThe Childrens Crusade: Innocence, Masculinity, and Humanity1440 Words   |  6 Pages　　Are wars still being fought by children. One could argue â€Å"no†, but others will say â€Å"yes†. Men go into war everyday, but many are not even fully grown. In Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five, he uses some of his own personal experiences to show the realities of war by examples of innocence, masculinity, and humanity through his main character Billy Pilgrim. Billy can supposedly time trave l after being kidnapped by aliens from Tralfamadore and uses it to travel to his time in WWII were he experiencedRead MoreThe Life and Writings of Kurt Vonnegut Essay2248 Words   |  9 PagesKurt Vonnegut is celebrated as one of the most successful novelist in the Post-Second World War period in the America. His literary works have had varied impacts on American culture, including the use of the word â€Å"karass† amongst college students, the naming of the pop groups â€Å"Ice Nine Kills† and â€Å"The Billy Pilgrims†, and the frequent use of the term â€Å"So it goes† as written in Vonnegut’s obituary on the New York Times (Farrell, p.ix). This article examines the impacts of Vonnegut’s on his literaryRead More The Theme of Dehumanization in Breakfast of Champions Essay1937 Words   |  8 PagesThe Theme of Dehumanization in Breakfast of Champions Dear Sir, poor sir, brave sir: You are an experiment by the Creator of the Universe. (Vonnegut 259) Imagine if this was addressed to you. What an awful feeling of betrayal and loneliness you would no doubt get. But what if next you heard this? You are the only creature in the entire Universe who has free will. You are the only one who has to figure out what to do next-and why. Everybody else is a robot, a machine. (Vonnegut 259) SurelyRead MoreReflections Of Life On The Page. Any Great Work Is, At1782 Words   |  8 Pagestheir stories as long or as short as possible, they can make a scene painfully detailed or boomingly quiet, and their list of options only goes on. One widely praised author, Kurt Vonnegut, often known as one of the pioneers of postmodernism, in many ways reflects his own life into his most famous work, Slaughterhouse Five. (Morse) In fact, his life influenced his work in so many ways that â€Å"Kathryn Hume describes his main characters as ‘Straightforward projects of some parts of his psyche,’ and otherRead More Biography of Kurt Vonnegut2381 Words   |  10 PagesKurt Vonnegut Jr. was born to third-generation German American parents in the city of Indianapolis, year 1922, November 11th. While at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Vonnegut was heavily involved with the school’s daily newspaper, the first and only daily high school newspaper in our nation. During his time at Cornell University, Vonnegut became the school paper’s senior editor. World War II then began, and so Vonnegut joined our nation’s armed forces. Mother’s Day came in 1944, and during